102 CHARLES II. 



With such slight interest on the part of those at the head 

 of affairs, it is not surprising to find that the society was 

 so unfortunate in its undertakings that, in a short time, 

 various methods of subsidising it had to be adopted. The 

 first proposal was that money should be raised for its sup- 

 port by giving it the monopoly of coming farthings. To 

 this proposal Pepys consented readily enough. A second 

 proposal, however, that the funds of the company should 

 be increased by the establishment of lotteries to be ad- 

 ministered on its behalf, was viewed by him with indignation ; 

 " I was ashamed to see it," he writes, " that a thing so low 

 and base should have anything to do with so noble an 

 undertaking." 1 In spite of his opposition, however, pro- 

 clamation was made on June 21st, 1665, when the disastrous 

 Dutch war had greatly increased the necessity of the 

 company, forbidding any persons to use or exercise lotteries 

 in Great Britain or Ireland, except Sir Anthony Desmarces 

 and four others, to whom the sole right of managing them 

 was granted, in order that they might raise a stock for 

 the Royal Fishery Company. 2 



Meanwhile, an attempt had been made to reach those 

 counties of England which had not responded to the king's 

 appeal when the first collection for the fishery had been 

 made in 1662. This second collection was completed 

 in 1664, when Samuel Pepys, along with George Duke, 

 secretary to the Royal Fishery, was deputed to make a report 

 upon the result. 3 It is in connection with his inquiry into 

 this collection that Pepys writes in his Diary under date 

 October 10th, 1664 : "To the office, and there late, and so 

 home to supper and to bed, having at up till past twelve at 

 night to look over the accounts of the collection for the 

 fishery, and the loose and base manner that monies so 



1 Pepys' Diary, September 13th, November 18th, December 3rd, 1664. 

 z Cal. S.P. Dom. Car. II., vol. 124, No. 142. 

 s lbid. vol. 103, No. 130. 



